Knowledge Center

Types of Test Data Used During Software Testing

18 October 2018

Test execution is a complex process that contains numerous stages. Data creation is one of the key activities for the test environment preparation. Each type of software testing requires different data, equally proper and sufficient. The largest amount of data is needed for performance, stress, and load testing.

The appropriate background must be provided for every test case. According to the IBM 2016 research, test engineers spend 30%-60% of their time producing data. One shouldn’t rely on standard test data as it is better to create the custom ones. Their preparation helps to assure sufficient test coverage and make the project more accomplished.

Test data can be grouped according to different parameters. As for their importance, there can be distinguished:

test-specific data: influence the system behavior and reveal the case specifics under the test

test-reference data: have little influence on the test performance

application reference data: irrelevant to the behavior under test, and are needed to start the application

Test data commonly include the following types

Valid test data. It is necessary to verify whether the system functions are in compliance with the requirements, and the system processes and stores the data as intended.